The rise and shine on Pleasure Island is about to get a bit more pleasurable with Big Apple Bakery opening in the coming weeks. Owner Shelly McGowan, who also captains the neighboring Michael’s Seafoodin Carolina Beach, says her new project will fill a void she’s felt since leaving her childhood home in New York 16 years ago. “I’ve basically been searching for an ideal bakery since I moved here,” she said with a laugh Monday afternoon.

The new business will feature a full gourmet coffee program mated with a wide range of staple pastries, bagels with flavored and whipped cream cheeses and perhaps most revealing of her Yankee roots, black and white cookies. Also planned are daily specialty diet items like gluten or sugar free recipes or a loaf of what McGowan calls Paleo Bread made of whole-grain rice and corn.

Sealing the deal, McGowan says convincing her big sister, Kim Schumann, to move South and run the operation is a major coup. Not only does Schumann know her way around an oven with ample professional baking experience, McGowan grew up loving her cooking, meaning she can have her cake and eat it as well by leaving the daily bakery grind in her sibling’s capable hands. Schumann will be joined in the kitchen by former Michael’s employee Aris Axlegard.

There won’t be any seating in this grab-and-go operation, and McGowan says the shop will open at 6:30 am, with closing hours likely dependent on the season, but not before 8:00 pm.

[…] the idea locally with Shelly McGowan mentioning a rice and corn loaf she’ll be offering at Big Apple Bakery. A second trip to Carolina Beach yielded another option, and a few hours later I found myself […]

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